On Christmas morning, I woke up to my mom shaking me. She was still in her pyjamas, her brown hair was as messed up as mine. My heart jumped in my chest when I realised it was Christmas, knocking all the tiredness out of me.

I rolled out of my bed and ran out the door of my room. I met Hugo out in the hall and we raced to the bottom of the stairs. I almost fell off the stairs in the process. Then we ran into the sitting room.

Hugo quickly dived under the Christmas tree to get his Christmas presents. We already knew where each one was. Last night after we came home we shook each present and weighed them in our hands trying to guess what each one was. We did this until mom shooed us away from under the tree.

By the time I had read the label on my first gift to see who it was from Hugo had already ripped open three of his (the monster). The first present I opened was from mom and dad. It was absolutely gorgeous! It was a silver bracelet with several eagle charms hanging from. The eagle charms were encrusted with tiny jewels on the edges of their wings.

I immediately slipped it on my wrist. I never wear jewellery but for this, I'll make an exception, it so freaking pretty and awesome!

I thanked mom and dad as they walked in the door hugging them.

I grabbed my next present which was from Jane. I squealed as I pulled away the wrapping to reveal a notebook. It was decorated Ravenclaw colours with a bronze eagle in the middle of the cover its wing spread out, underneath it was the word friends. I smiled at it and ran my hand over the silky cover.

I placed it aside for now and opened the present next to it, which was from Abby. I held it arms length from me. I half expected it to explode or burst into a blinding light show. I tore off the wrapping paper to reveal a framed photo. I immediately doubled over in laughter. I couldn't believe it, I had nearly forgotten about it. It was the photo Abby had taken of Malfoy at the Hospital Wing. There he was moving about the frame like a rat trying to escape, puking up of slugs.

"What are you laughing at, Rosie?" asked dad kneeling down next to me in the litter of wrapping paper.

I handed him the frame.

"Oh 'Mione, look at this." He laughed. "We're definitely putting this on the mantel."

"Ron," mom said sternly trying to hide her amusement. "That has no place on our mantel."

"Who sent this to you?" dad asked grinning.

"Abby. She took the picture when she was visiting me in the Hospital Wing with Jane." I said.

"I like her, she can come over anytime she likes."

The rest of the presents I got were from my various family members. The majority of it were books (yay) and of course a purple knitted jumper from Grandma Molly with the letter R on in. Without fail every year I get one and so does everyone else in the family. I have no clue where she finds the time to knit all those jumpers, even if most of the work is by magic, our family's pretty big.

Every year I get presents that I'm not so grateful for, such as Aunt Audrey's frilly little pink dresses that always have a frilly, itchy turtleneck. Aunt Fleur magic hair potions, which I wouldn't take offence to if it didn't have in big glittery words on the front of the bottle "UGLY HAIR TO GORGEOUS BEAUTIFUL HAIR."

I have called my hair many things but no way do I think it's ugly. Somehow it doesn't agree with my hair, it only makes it more of a tangled mess. But Aunt Fleur doesn't seem to get the message that it doesn't work. Not that I care enough to get other hair potions to find a solution, there are better uses for potions.

The rest of Christmas morning I spent with my head in my new books. I was watching Hugo out of the corner of my eye trying not to laugh as he tried to see how many fainting fancies he eat before he could actually faint. The current record in our family is four held by Fred. But Hugo's attempts weren't made easy, he had to avoid getting caught out by mom who was walking in between the kitchen and sitting room suspicious.

At five o'clock mom told us to go upstairs and get ready for Christmas at the Burrow. Mom had already bought a dress for me to wear. I really liked it. The dress was a mix of earthy colours with longs sleeves, it fell to my ankles. It was soft and it kept in the warmth which was a plus.

For my hair, I made a slight change, which I save for occasions like these. I tied my ponytail back over itself so it became a bun.

Before I left my room to go downstairs I placed Abby's present (the epic Malfoy photo) on my bedside table since my desk was too overrun with books.

We apparated to the Burrow (not my favourite method of travel). Grandma Molly was nearly finished preparing the dinner, mom went to help her. Hugo went off with Lily, Louis and Roxanne (both two years younger than Hugo and Lily). Aunt Fleur came up to me and asked me (as she does every year) did I use her hair potion. Trying to avoid a roundabout of questions I used one of my less intelligent lies.

"Sorry, Aunt Fleur," I said pulling my best sorry face. "I lost it."

"Rose, zis is ze second time you have said zat. Last year was ze same." Aunt Fleur scowled. "Do you not want pretty hair? Don't worry, I have a spare one."

"No." I lied hurriedly. "It's probably under my pile of books at home."

"Rosie!" I heard Fred calling me across the room.

"I'll see you, Aunt Fleur," I said making my way over to Fred.

Fred was with James and Dominique sitting on a mismatched sofa by the fire. James and Dominique were in deep discussion about something only stopping to say hi to me. Fred looked bored.

"You looked like you needed saving," Fred said moving over to give me a space on the couch.

"Thanks," I said sitting down beside him. "But I didn't need saving."

"It's Aunt Fleur! The Aurors would probably need saving from her." Fred said.

Fred launched into conversation telling me about the new sweets his dad was working on that he gave him for Christmas. He told me that they were better than Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. When he said 'better' I hoped he didn't mean they contained extra strong vomit flavour, earwax flavour and countless other poisonous tastes.

Fred reached into the pocket of his jacket and produced a shiny gold box with a purple ribbon wrapped around it. He undid the ribbon and opened it revealing about ten glistening beans all the same colour as toffee.

"Try one." He offered excitedly.

Thinking no better of it I grabbed a bean and put it in my mouth. My mouth erupted with the intense taste of overcooked cabbage when I bit down the bean. An immediately swat it out, the taste burning the back of my throat.

Fred howled with laughter along with James and Dominique. I ran into the kitchen to get some water.

"Rose, what's wrong?" mom asked concerned when she saw me. I pulling probably not my happiest facial expression.

I scrambled to get a glass out of the cupboard and poured some water into the glass from the tap. I took a long sip from the glass of water.

"I ate something that Fred gave me." I said feeling the colour rush to my face when I realised how stupid that sounded.

"I told you, Rose, not to do that."

I walked out of the kitchen to Fred thinking 'where the bloody hell did my common sense go?' This happened every time Fred or James or Uncle George had offered me some to eat, I'd put it in my mouth without a second thought.

"That was not better than Bertie Bott's Every Favour Beans!" I said angrily returning to my seat next to him again.

"I'm sorry, Rosie, I thought you knew what I meant by better. I didn't think you were going to shove the whole thing in your mouth." Fred said amused.

"How is that better?" I asked.

"Firstly, they're coloured all the same so there's no way of telling the difference," Fred explained. "Secondly, they're about ten times stronger in taste, so eat with caution."

I felt like hitting him.

"Why didn't you tell me this before I ate the bean?"

"But then you wouldn't have eaten it," Fred said smiling mischievously. "Ask next time, Rosie."

Before I could retort back Grandma Molly's voice filled the room calling us all for dinner. We sat in the same places we sat in yesterday. The dinner that we had was more extravagant than Christmas Eve's. The rowdy discussions forming at the table, varied from old fond memories, work to quidditch.

Uncle Bill had forced everyone to move down one so he could sit in between Victoire and Teddy claiming that he didn't like them hand holding under the table where he couldn't see it (weird). Victoire folded her arms and pouted giving her the odd appearance of a baby hippogriff.

Every time Uncle Bill took his eyes off Teddy, he would use his metamorphmagus abilities to impersonate Uncle Bill. Making the whole table laugh and when Uncle Bill turned back to look at Teddy, Teddy would change his features to look like a cow's claiming that it was the emotional shock of being away from Victoire that brought it on.

After dinner, everyone went outside for the grand final in the Weasley/Potter/Teddy quidditch cup. The only reason I came out with them was to sit out in the snow and read. I liked to imagine that I was actually sitting on a cloud, a very cold cloud. Mom was nice enough put a heating charm on me, but I could still see my breath fogging and floating into the cold night.

The homemade wooden Weasley quidditch pitch was like the one at school only more unstable and without the stands. I found a comfortable spot and sat down. The loud cries of cheer and yelling became background noise as I read.